2013

A Week in December, by Sebastian Faulks

London, the week before Christmas, 2007. Seven wintry days to track the lives of seven characters: a hedge fund manager trying to bring off the biggest trade of his career; a professional footballer recently arrived from Poland; a young lawyer with little work and too much time to speculate; a student who has been led astray by Islamist theory; a hack book-reviewer; a schoolboy hooked on skunk and reality TV; and a Tube driver whose Circle Line train joins these and countless other lives together in a daily loop.

With daring skill, the novel pieces together the complex patterns and crossings of modern urban life, and the group is forced, one by one, to confront the true nature of the world they inhabit. Sweeping, satirical, Dickensian in scope, A Week in December is a thrilling state of the nation novel from a master of literary fiction.

Cityread 2013 Highlights

Throughout April we hosted a month long programme of events that took place in libraries and other venues across London. Festival highlights included; the launch event at the Free Word Centre; the official opening of Woolwich Library, by Sebastian, who also read extracts from A Week in December, followed by an author Q and A; World Book Nights at various libraries across London including Shepherds Bush Library, Kensington Central Library and Paddington Library; The British Library hosted author event; and Barnet book groups celebration of Sebastian’s 60th birthday at Hendon Library, along with a read and discuss session of the book.

Cityread also created a programme of free events aimed at engaging children and young people with the themes of the novel. Highlights included; Karen Rubins series of Comics Workshops, in libraries all around the capital; our poetry competition – children (11 and under and 12 to 16) were invited to write a short poem about a favourite London place to win a great collection of Vintage Books; Spread the Word arranged the young writer in residence & blog, and London Metropolitan Archives hosted; and The Curzon cinema held a special screening of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

About Sebastian Faulks

Sebastian Faulks was born in April 1953. Before becoming a full-time writer in 1991, he worked as a journalist. His French trilogy – The Girl at the Lion d’Or, Birdsong and Charlotte Gray (1989-1997) – established him in the front rank of British novelists. UK sales of Birdsong exceed 2,500,000 copies, and for this novel he was named “Author of the Year” by the British Book Awards in 1995. It is regularly voted one of the nation’s favourite books. Charlotte Gray has also sold over a million copies and was filmed with Cate Blanchett in the main part.

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